Kelly Rowland recently watched over a friend giving birth because she was concerned that the hospital may be careless with her life.
The “Mea Culpa” star was concerned over recent statistics surrounding maternal mortality rates in women of color.
“I just actually watched another girlfriend of mine give birth, and I saw the way a hospital was with her and how she really had to advocate for herself,” she told People.com. “I remember going in there, and I was asking questions. I was probably doing the most, but I didn’t care because I love her.”
She added: “If they were about to be careless with her life, I couldn’t sit there and watch, you know what I mean? As women and as Black women, we’ve got to figure this stuff out,” she says.
Kelly, 43, says she partnered with BirthFUND to raise funds to help pregnant women of color receive adequate midwife care.
According to the National Institute of Health, “Black women in the United States disproportionately experience adverse pregnancy outcomes, including maternal mortality, compared to women of other racial and ethnic groups.”
Kelly said she was grateful she had a positive experience giving birth to both her sons, Titan, 9, and Noah, 3. Kelly gave birth both times at a hospital with the help of her husband, Tim Weatherspoon, and a doula.
“I had a doula in the hospital because the sound of the hospital just made me nervous,” she recalls. “And the last time I was in the hospital [prior] I’d lost my mother, so I just wanted the hospital experience to be something different. My husband was there just in case something were to happen.”
She continued: “I had a really smooth delivery, and I had an opportunity to have a really peaceful birth. And I feel like every woman should experience that. You shouldn’t attach the word trauma to birth.”
